Manchester City were pushed into a box in their own half and were not allowed to get out. The likes of Yossi Benayoun, Tomas Rosicky, Alex Song and company forced them to turn over possession time and time again. Manchester City only managed one shot on target in the whole game. As good as our defence were on the day, they did not have to perform heroic clearances off the lines or last ditch

Last season a Chamakh brace as well as a superb defensive performance from Squillaci, Djourou and Fabianski gave us a tough grounded out victory against Wolves. How quickly things can change in football.

Although one of those important players from that game will be starting tonight. Johan Djourou will replace the suspended Laurent Koscielny after our tenacious and cultured center back picked up his tenth yellow card in total in the 1-0 thrashing of Money bags City over the weekend. I watched that game back yesterday and we really did dominate them from start to finish.

Johan Djourou is more than capable of dealing with what Wolves would throw at us and his inclusion alone wouldn’t concern me very much, it is the same for any of the defensive players Squillaci apart, the issue may arise if three of our back four have to come into the side at the same time and that may well be the case tonight. Kieran Gibbs hobbled off against Manchester City due to a oh so tired groin while Bacary Sagna may have been Balotellied one too many times. Missing Gibbs, Sagna and Koscielny is a blow for their individual defensive attributes but more importantly collectively, as they have had a solid run of games together, their match understanding is on point right now and you can see that by the way they have all stepped up together to catch dopey strikers offside time and time again in recent weeks.

It will be a huge ask for the likes of Carl Jenkinson, Johan Djourou and Andre Santos to all come in and instantly have that same understanding with each other. Short work on the training ground will help but it is nothing like the real deal and the players will have some of that real deal this evening.

My hope is that if the rest of the team play as we did against Manchester City then the defence shouldn’t have a great deal to do during the game and that is not to dismiss Wolves but to talk up our strength.

Manchester City were pushed into a box in their own half and were not allowed to get out. The likes of Yossi Benayoun, Tomas Rosicky, Alex Song and company forced them to turn over possession time and time again. Manchester City only managed one shot on target in the whole game. As good as our defence were on the day, they did not have to perform heroic clearances off the line or last ditch tackles in the box. The defending was done further up the pitch.

Wolves are not in good shape right now but neither were QPR when we faced them. Any complacency on our part would deserve punishment especially given the fact that we were stung so recently.

I just do not see that happening this time around, the players would need mental health checks if they were to go into the game with a poor attitude.

The noises that have been coming out of the club have been positive.

Arteta said:

“I don’t think it will be easy. We have some good examples this year when we have dropped points against teams near the bottom. We have to go there with the right mentality and the right approach and sense of pride. When you’re playing away from home there are no easy games in the Premier League.”

While the likes of Wolves may not have the technical excellence that we have, they have as much fight and determination as they choose so we have to match or hopefully better that, if we can do so then there is no reason why we shouldn’t win this game based on current form.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up:

You would imagine that Arsene will want to keep the midfield and attack unchanged as defensive changes might be forced upon him. Aaron Ramsey may have been in contention to rest one of the older midfielders in Rosicky or Benayoun after a fighting display against City but I would now be surprised if Arsene tinkers with the rest of the team.

I am intrigued to know how Andre Santos affects the balance of the team. Kieran Gibbs likes to drive outside Benayoun and stick to the touchline while Andre Santos tends to drift inside and almost double up as another central midfielder when we have the ball. Will that change Yossi’s game? Will Yossi Benayoun have to stick closer to the touchline?

If Carl Jenkinson starts the game ahead of Sagna then will he be up to speed? Will he continue his great delivery of crosses before his back injury. Will Robin van Persie finally get amongst the goals after four games without scoring. His lack of goals proves that we do not need him in the team and we can get rid in the summer.

That last line was of course a joke but given the fickle nature of football fans, would that look out of place on a football blog?

I have a feeling that Theo will be the main man tonight. Why? nothing more than a hunch. I fancy a Theo brace tonight, maybe even a Theo assist to go along with that should we play like we want to, on and off the ball.

That is the key, playing how we want to and everyone knows how that is. Is it up to the players to show how that is and jump five points ahead of the gap minders.

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